WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Don't forget history, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said late this morning when discussing opposition to a healthcare program derided as a disaster-in-waiting and a path to socialism.

He meant Medicare.

"President Ford as a member of the Congress voted against it.
Bob Dole voted against it. The American Medical Association opposed it," Brown said. "The insurance
industry, the John Birch Society – none of them liked it. There was a lot of
controversy."

Yet within five years, the Ohio Democrat said, "people were already looking back and saying, 'What was the big deal? This is working for our country.' And clearly 45 years later, we've had two generations of people that have benefited from Medicare, and it has very deep and wide public support.

"The same thing will happen with the Affordable Care Act five years from now," Brown predicted.

We asked Brown about the ACA, also known as Obamacare, during a press conference call because of the discourse and controversy over its rollout. Computer problems have made it difficult at best, and impossible many times, for people to enroll for coverage through the national insurance exchange. Would-be buyers have been frustrated when they try to sign up for policies and apply for tax subsidies, only to find an inoperable computer network.

President Barack Obama's administration says fixes are coming, and fast, but critics say the administration bungled badly, especially since it knew since 2010 that it would need the network to operate by Oct. 1, 2013.

Then came news this week that many people who already had individual policies -- coverage they obtained in the past year or earlier -- will have to buy entirely new policies because their old ones don't conform with the ACA's rules. Many people will wind up spending less of their own money and get richer benefits, the White House and Democrats say, but Republicans say there have been too many surprises, and they mock the president's own words: "If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it."

The Washington Post's Fact Checker Wednesday awarded a rating of four Pinocchios -- as false as it gets -- to similar words from Obama: "No one will take away" your heath plan. The Post's explanation is detailed and notes the considerable nuance involved in the White House claims, but the bottom line is the rating, which has been cited throughout Capitol Hill.

Also Wednesday, Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, had an op-ed in National Review Online calling for repeal of Obamacare.

So while Brown was on the line with reporters to discuss some other matters (a bill that he says would help veterans get jobs and better transition to civilian life), it seemed appropriate to discuss Obamacare and how he believes it will play out.

"I'm very disappointed in the preparation of HHS and the White House on how this was
rolled out," Brown began. "The computer glitches were inexcusable. This shouldn't have happened.
They should have been better prepared."

But he added that political opposition is making the roll-out needlessly divisive. He said that Medicare started under similar scorn, yet it became accepted as an important societal benefit.

Brown said he is "very confident" the same will occur with the ACA.

The Ohioan brought up the Medicare prescription drug benefit, championed by President George W. Bush. Democrats said the bill was a sop for pharmaceutical companies, since Republicans rejected a proposal that would have made the companies negotiate with the government to hold down prices.

"A lot of us voted against it," Brown said of the Medicare drug bill, "but once it was in effect, a
lot of us helped. I did town halls. I did meetings with people to encourage
them to sign up. There wasn't this very hyper-partisan opposition to something
that they didn't like, that there is now."

He said that states that chose to establish their own insurance-purchasing exchanges -- Ohio is not one -- are doing well. But he added, "I appreciate that
the state is doing at least the Medicaid expansion in Ohio. That will matter
for a whole lot of people."

Even amid the current problems logging onto the national insurance exchange, Ohioans are benefiting from the ACA already, Brown said.

One million Ohio
seniors now get preventive exams and care without having to pay a deductible, and 100,000 Ohio young people have been able to stay on their parents' policies and not get dumped when they turn 18 or graduate from college without a job that provides benefits, he said.

Because the ACA already requires insurers to spend most of their premium dollars on care rather than marketing and administration, thousands of Ohioans have gotten rebates from insurance companies "that overcharged them," Brown said.

"We know that families that have a child with a pre-existing
condition can no longer be denied coverage," he added. "Those have all been rolled out prior to Oct. 1, prior to
this year. All of those have been
successful.

"This is going to work," Brown predicted. "All the bad publicity, all the political
attacks over time will just sort of melt away, I think."

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